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Thursday, March 8, 2012

黒門 (Kuromon in Shinjuku)

西新宿 つけそば 黒門

Even though I had a dinner date later in the evening, walking with my camera in Tokyo will inevitably lead to a ramen adventure. Kuromon is in my neighborhood of Shinjuku, and I had passed the shop a few hundred times before. Unfortunately for Kuromon, it lies just off the main drag of ramen shops on Shinjuku's skyscraper side; too far for a random hungry walker to stumble in to by accident. Also, it is close enough to Nagi Nicai for a seasoned eater to avoid it all together. But like I said, I had my camera with me.

The 200g 麻辛丸 looked like the one for me. 麻辛丸 doesn't have much meaning, unless you sound it out. Ma-Shin-Gan.

This semi-automatic comes at you from a few angles. First, the soup is meant to knock you down with spice. More of a tang, this bullet was a dud.

Trying to flank you, the 200g of pork is a heavy hitter.

Wow. This much meat at a place without a crowd can be a bad thing. Being stuck with a quarter kilo of tough, dry pork is something I have done a few times in the past. Not keen to do it again.

Luckily, the pork here was excellent. Nowhere present in any best-of lists, but tender enough, once dipped in the soup, to be thoroughly enjoyed. The tangy, the fatty, the smoky; not bad.

But like I said, this shop is in the middle of a major ramen zone, and there are many tastier offerings.